Filipinos urged to bust ‘fellowship of crooks’

A protester expresses anger at the plunder of taxpayers’ money through the pork barrel system at a rally of students and teachers on Session Road in Baguio City. RICHARD BALONGLONG / INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

MANILA, Philippines—The continuing public outrage over the P10-billion “pork barrel” scam should spur the people not only to bust the “fellowship of crooks” but also to work for political transformation, a private think tank said Friday.

The Quezon City-based Center for People Empowerment in Governance, in an analysis of the corruption scandal involving the diversion of the congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund to bogus nongovernmental organizations or nonexistent projects, said public trust in government had dived as a result of the scam and would not be restored, at least in the current generation.

“The public trust rating in government as an institution is at its lowest and the state is at its terminal stage. It is time to move forward,” it said.

For CenPEG, the pork barrel scam was “unprecedented” given the involvement of the congressmen and the government agencies and the fact the alleged criminal operation has been existing since 2004.

“Corruption weakens the state. Pork barrel, sugar-coated by the title PDAF… made Congress a rubber-stamp of Malacañang under a system of political patronage disabling its constitutional mandate as check and balance on the chief executive and made it less conducive for a viable political party system,” it said.

CenPEG said corruption and the patronage politics it engenders were also at the core of dysfunctional government institutions—from agencies that are tasked to deliver public goods and services to the those that administer justice.

“All these breed a culture of impunity that allows the commission not only of more graft and corrupt practices but also other crimes, including human rights violations,” it said.

More than being exposed as “legitimized plunder,” the pork barrel scandal also revealed “an atrocious belief that the way to run a government is to ensure a quid pro quo partnership between Congress and the chief executive through patronage politics with pork barrel as one of the devices, i.e., a fellowship of crooks,” CenPEG added.

The think tank added that it expected public dissatisfaction with the government to intensify with the anticipated lengthy litigation of the PDAF-related plunder cases and the possibility that the current scam allegedly perpetrated by businesswoman Janet Napoles was “just the tip of the iceberg that could unearth other similar syndicates” siphoning off funds earmarked for poverty alleviation and other projects.

How the Aquino administration deals with the scam, including the possibility that allies are also involved, would also contribute to public perception on whether the President has the capability to govern competently, it said.

CenPEG said public outrage should translate into citizen involvement and political transformation. It said “a more vigilant citizens’ watch” on government agencies, as well as the passage of a freedom of information law, should come side by side with more involvement by the people in governance through political action.

“Between now and the 2016 election is an opportunity for mass politicization toward empowering the people with alternative governance. Public trust is not just about government. It is about people trusting themselves to collectively devise the best government model they deserve. Now is the best time to begin the process,” it said.